


A Not-So-Ordinary Evening at the Wesley House

by corikane



Series: Teenage Bounty Hunters - series 1 [5]
Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family Drama, Gen, Sisterly bond - Freeform, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26290789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corikane/pseuds/corikane
Summary: An evening at the Wesley house shows some little changes. It's the first dinner with the whole family in weeks and things are awkward. But Sterling is determined to get her life back on track and she needs help with that.
Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley, Blair Wesley & Sterling Wesley
Series: Teenage Bounty Hunters - series 1 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916662
Comments: 16
Kudos: 221





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story links to all my other stories, starting with Not Biblically. Not sure how much sense this makes without them but you can always try. Enjoy.

Sterling had never in her life felt so strange coming down the stairs of her childhood home. She had hardly left the house during the last three weeks, even sitting in the yard gave her anxiety. But she wasn't going to leave the house now, she was just coming down to talk to her parents - or, ideally, talk at them. She wasn't really keen to have them answer her and she knew that thought made her a total brat.

She stood in the doorway, listening to a low conversation between them. From the kitchen came the appetizing smell of her mo... Debbie's lasagna. Comfort food.

She stepped into the room. Anderson looked up right away, he had his arm around his wife and was turned that way. Debbie was looking at the tv but turned when she noticed Anderson's focus.

"Sterling," she said. She grabbed the remote and turned the tv off immediately.

"Hi," Sterling said.

"Hi, honey. Are you okay?"

Sterling shook her head. "No, I'm not. I need help."

"Of course, what can we do?" Anderson asked eagerly. He was ready to jump up and build a survivalist's bunker in his backyard if she asked for it, she was sure.

"I need to talk to someone. A professional, a psychologist." She'd googled the difference between psychologist and psychiatrist now and had decided what she needed. "I'm not sure how it works, though. If we have insurance for something like that or not."

"Not at the moment, no. But sure, if you need to talk to someone like that, your mom can make you an appointment. Right, honey?"

"Sure, I'll do that."

Sterling nodded. "It's probably expensive but we could take some of the money Bowser gave us, right?" Bowser had split the reward for Dana's capture with the Wesleys. Sterling didn't think that she'd ever touch it but it was probably poetic justice if she used it for her recovery.

"That's not necessary, Sterl. That money's yours and Blair's. We can pay for it," Anderson said but Sterling didn't miss the look Debbie cast over her shoulder at his words.

"If it's mine then I'd rather pay for the therapy myself," she said, making her voice hard.

"Whatever you want, Sterl," Debbie said. "Would you prefer to talk to a man or a woman?"

Sterling hadn't thought about that. She raised her shoulders. "I don't think that matters."

"I'll look into it first thing tomorrow."

"Thank you. Is dinner almost ready?"

Sterling saw her mom's eyes glaze over with tears at the question. She almost felt bad for her, in fact, she fought hard not to feel bad. A lump formed in her throat while Debbie couldn't help smiling.

"Another ten minutes. Do you want to set the table?"

"Tell Blair to help you," Anderson added hopefully.

Sterling just nodded and turned toward the stairs. When she was half-way up she took a deep breath and sat down. She was shaking inside.

"Hey," she heard from behind her. It was Blair. "You okay?"

She shook her head and heard Blair come quickly down the stairs. She sat down beside her and lay her arms around her. Sterling held onto her.

"I'm here," Blair said. "We're all right."

Sterling wasn't sure how true that last statement was but she hoped that they were. She wanted them to be.

* * *

During dinner, Blair tried to direct the conversation - mostly away from Sterling because she had asked her to.

"How's the job hunting going, dad?"

"Ehhh, I'm not sure. I've got some good prospects but the recession, you know. Hardly anyone's hiring. I might have to go back to your grandpa's."

"That sucks," Blair said.

"Language," Debbie admonished.

"Well, it does for dad. He should be able to do what he wants not what he has to do."

"Oh, like you did with that bounty hunting?" Debbie said, her voice sharp but then she became aware of Sterling's presence and she pressed her lips together.

"Exactly like that," Blair answered. "I loved doing that." She turned to Sterling. "We both did, and we were good at it. Better than at serving yogurt anyway."

"You always put too many toppings on, it drove Bowser nuts."

"I also basically ate my paycheck in yogurt. God, I miss that place," Blair said with a wistful sigh.

"Don't take the Lord's name in vain, Blair."

"I don't. When I use His name, I'm always addressing Him."

"He doesn't need to know about your love for yogurt, honey," Debbie argued.

Sterling looked at her. Had she always been this nitpicking toward Blair? "I think it's nice. I mean, usually, all He gets are requests. It must be a change to have someone just tell Him random things." She smiled at Blair.

Blair smiled back. "God, I love rainbows. They rock," she said.

They giggled. Under the table, Blair took Sterling's hand and squeezed it. They both knew that Debbie would usually admonish them but she seemed tongue-tied now that Sterling was starting to talk to them again. Sterling wondered if she should exploit this power but decided against it - mostly.

"The lasagna is very good," she said.

"I know it's your favorite. Well, I guess it's all our favorite."

"I love your Thanksgiving turkey, oh, and those mini-quiches. And your gravy is to die for," Blair chimed up. She loved food, period, none of them was surprised.

"Well, we can't really have Thanksgiving turkey when it's not Thanksgiving, right?" Debbie teased Blair.

"Yeah, but why not?" Blair got back. "The turkey would be much cheaper outside of the season and you can get all the other stuff without problem... hmmm." She seemed to seriously plan on having Thanksgiving turkey outside of Thanksgiving. Possibly sometime the coming weekend.

"It's still a little bit too warm for a whole turkey dinner, Blair," Anderson said.

"Yeah, maybe. November really is the perfect time for it."

A phone chimed with a text. The whole family stopped and looked around, phones were forbidden at the dinner table.

"Oh, that's mine," Sterling said, remembering that she'd put her phone in her hoodie's front pocket after she'd answered April's last message. She pulled it out now and read the new message.

_How did it go with your parents? Have you talked to them yet?_

She typed an answer, oblivious to Anderson awkwardly clearing his throat and Debbie just staring at her. _It's kind of still going on. We're having dinner. I'll tell you later._

"Who're you texting?" Blair asked to relieve the awkwardness.

"April," Sterling simply said. She was done lying about little things, or maybe she was done lying period.

"The Stevens girl?" Anderson asked.

"Yes, we're friends again."

"Really?" Debbie asked, she sounded judgmental and wasn't trying to hide it.

"Yes. She's going through a lot with her family too."

"Well, John Stevens is a... felon." She seemed to want to make a distinction between him and them.

"Technically, he was cleared of all charges, not that that's in any way fair to the woman he beat up but also not surprising considering he's a white, straight male in a Southern state."

"Uhhh..." Anderson made but he seemed to feel that he didn't have a leg to stand on with his family on this.

"I'm not sure his daughter would be the best of influences right now. And isn't she dating Luke?"

"Not anymore, they broke up. And how can you blame April for what her father did? If anything, she's one of his victims, after all, she has to live in the same house with him, have him make rules she has to obey while he can go out having intercourse with sex workers at any time. How's that fair?" She'd raised her voice, her breathing was labored. It was suddenly hard to get air into her lungs.

"Hey, Sterl, breathe. It's all right." Blair was rubbing her back.

Sterl nodded, trying to focus on her breathing. She had to close her eyes because the stunned faces of Debbie and Anderson weren't helping her relax. When her breathing was back to normal, she opened her eyes again.

"I didn't think of it that way. I apologize," Debbie said.

"April..." But that was all Sterling could get out. She felt exhausted and shaky again. She stood from the table and left the kitchen to go up to her room.


	2. Chapter 2

It was half an hour later when Blair opened the door to Sterling's room and raised a plate with a half-eaten piece of lasagna.

"You hadn't finished. I heated it up, you want?"

"No, you can have it," Sterling said. She was sitting on her bed, sorting through some old photographs.

Blair came in and sat down at Sterling's desk, she swiveled the chair around to face her. "You sure, you lost some weight."

Sterling sighed. "I know. I just can't get any more down tonight."

Blair dug into the lasagna. While she ate she was watching Sterl. "What're you looking for?"

"Hm? Oh... well, I'm looking through old school photos. I was wondering if I still had one from... before."

"Before? Like before the apocalypse?" Blair grinned.

"Kind of. Before April and I stopped speaking."

"Oh. Hm." Blair took another bite of the lasagna which was now almost gone. It was sad to see food vanish like that. If there was one impossible thing Blair really wished for it was food that never ended. She would just eat till she was full and then hand the food to a hungry person on the street and they could hand it off to all of their friends. It would totally end world-hunger and Blair would get round and very happy because she'd had all the food she wanted while also helping people. It was a win-win all.

She put the plate down on the desk when she finished. "Are you and April..." she started and upon turning back to Sterling she just raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Together?" Sterl asked. "No, we're friends."

"But you want to be more, don't you?"

Sterling stopped her frantic search for a photo she'd probably didn't have anymore and looked at Blair earnestly. "So much it hurts. But she can't be more, not with her dad being who he is, not even with her mom. They're the kind of Christians who judge others way more harshly than they judge themselves and for entirely the wrong reasons. Jesus didn't say a single thing about gay people, not a single one."

"Hey, I know that. He was way too busy shaming rich people and hanging out with sex workers."

"He was kind of awesome. It's a shame, bigots like the Stevenses get to claim his as their savior when they're not even listening to most of the things he said."

"Welcome to America, baby," Blair said.

Sterling grimaced and went back to looking through her pictures. "Here's one. Well, kind of."

Blair came over to the bed and looked at what Sterling had unearthed. It was basically a shot of herself and Sterl with their arms around each other's necks. It looked more like they were trying to strangle each other than hug. April was in the background, smiling at their antics. Blair was sure, their mom had taken that picture on their birthday.

"It's cute," she said before giving it back. "Say?"

"Mh?"

"What happened between you and April at the lock-in? You never said."

Sterling's fingers stopped their search and just lay on the photos, she didn't raise her head though to look at Blair. It wasn't a good sign.

"It's not that important. I pushed too hard for us to come out and then her dad came back and April shut down. It's not really her fault."

"If she hurt you then it's totally her fault," Blair disagreed.

"She didn't mean to, she was protecting herself."

Blair was about to disagree with that too but Sterling raised her hand. "Please, don't, Blair. That night was... it's the most painful thing I can think of and I don't want to think of it right now."

She couldn't argue with that. "I'm sorry."

"I know it was hard for you too. I haven't even asked about you and Miles. But I guess the fact that you're not together anymore is my answer, isn't it?"

Blair fell forward onto Sterling's bed. She turned her head sideways after a few seconds. "I fucked up that night. Then he fucked up. And I found out that he wasn't right for me. I'm sorry, I blamed you for our problems. It turned out we'd had way bigger problems than just that one date."

"I'm sorry, Blair."

"Yeah, well. I'm kinda been checking the school scene again. Made out with a couple of guys but nothing clicked so far. It's kinda hard to go back to... snogging when you've gone all the way. I love the word snogging, it's so much more descriptive than making out."

"I like making out. What I mean is that I loved making out with April even after I've had sex with Luke. It felt like a new start. Too bad it was just a start and not more."

"Hm," Blair made. "Is it really different? Kissing a girl?"

"Well, the breath is better, obviously. But it also doesn't become about one singular body part at some point, you know? Like a guy is so focused on what is happening in his pants at some point and then you become all about that until... well..."

"Until you bang."

"Yeah, and it's not like I didn't want that with April but the build-up seemed much slower. And until then there seemed so many things that one could touch and..." She drifted off but her face sported a rosy blush and she grinned.

"Wow, that does sound awesome. But also kinda boring. I mean, sometimes you just wanna..." Blair flopped around Sterling's bed to indicate fucking. She must have done it wrong, though, 'cause Sterling started laughing.

"Stop doing that, my photos." She hit Blair on her flopping butt.

"Ow."

"And it's not boring when your heart is beating wildly the whole time and your brain is frantically wondering how far she'll let you go before she'll stop you with a bible quote."

Blair lifted herself up on her elbows. "So how far did she let you go before stopping you with a bible quote?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Very much," Blair admitted.

Sterling sighed. "There was something about kissing April that felt way more intimate than just kissing. I didn't have that with Luke. Just being close to April... I don't know, I feel so much closer to her even though we weren't technically as close."

"You're talking about emotions, I'm talking about body parts," Blair complained.

"Let's just say it got heated enough to fog the windows of the Volt."

"I'm proud of you," Blair said, rolling onto her side. "And I guess I'm even a little impressed with April. Who thought she'd be that passionate?"

"Are you serious? That woman color-codes her notes on color-coding. If that isn't passionate, I don't know what is."

"Nerd-passion," Blair said and laughed when Sterling tried to playfully hit her. "Seriously, I hope it works out between you two. You seem... oddly well-matched. I never got that with you and Luke."

"And I hope that you find someone who matches you just as well, or not at all, whichever you prefer."

"Hm, I'm not sure what would suit me better myself. But I know that if I want to find someone as unique and whimsical as myself, I'll probably have a long journey ahead of me."

"You love journeys."

"I know. I think I'll just gonna accept the challenge I set myself and start looking for my male counterpart right now."

"Are you sure it's a male counterpart?"

"That is a good question," Blair admitted. "By the time I find them, they might be female, or androgynous. I do love the peen, though."

"But you love vag too, at least your own," Sterling argued.

"Very true. I'll just stop assuming anything about my sexuality right now and start searching."

"Just don't search near April," Sterling warned and it sounded to Blair like she was at least half-serious.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen. She's all yours. If you want me to, I'll even stake your claim and let no other girl come near her until you return to school," Blair vowed.

"Which reminds me, I'm planning on coming back to school on Monday. Ah, look here. It's so cute!" Sterling held up a picture of her and April from around six years ago, sitting with their heads close together and smiling.

"Aw, you were the cutest little dykes ever!"

"You can't say dyke!"

"Why not? I might yet turn out to be one."

"Just because you don't exclude anything for yourself you can't just co-opt any sexuality. That's disrespectful. Also, I don't identify as a lesbian so I'm also not a dyke."

"Well, looking at that photo you coulda fooled me," Blair teased. "Anyway, are you sure about going back to school so soon?"

"You said it yourself, I'm depressed. I need to get back into my life, I need to be among people and... go out there."

"Then we're gonna make test runs this week and on the weekend. Not long ones, just around the block at first, okay?"

"You help me?"

"Always!"

Sterling smiled at Blair thankfully.

"Have you told mom and dad yet?"

"No, I'm gonna do that tomorrow. Then I'm gonna email Ellen."

Blair reached out and took Sterling's hand in hers. "It's gonna be fine. I'll be right with you."

Sterling leaned forward and hugged Blair tightly. Then she got up off the bed with the photo of her and April. She went over to her dream board and put the photo up under the section LOVE, right above a picture of her and Luke.


End file.
